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| A man with leprosy ringing his bell to warn of his approach. http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-general/uncovering-ancient-roots-leprosy-001367 |
I grew up in a household where both parents were involved in the medical profession. I still seem to have to tell people that being cold doesn't give you "a cold." There are plenty of myths about how to treat illnesses and injuries that are downright frightening to the medical professional (though plenty of the old remedies, some that we are still rediscovering, actually work). "Feed a cold and starve a fever," anyone? We're not too far removed from our imaginative (if incorrect) past.
Our responses (treatments) were based on dealing with the symptoms of a malady, because often we had no idea what the causes were. In some cases, we still don't know where chemistry/biology ends and psychology begins. It's difficult for a modern individual to know what to do when encountering someone suffering from a severe form of Tourette's Syndrome (a relatively mild tic could also be disconcerting if repetitive) or having an epileptic seizure. How were our ancestors supposed to have any idea how to react?
It turns out that our ancestors reacted in all kinds of ways and ascribed a variety of sources for epilepsy, even though Hippocrates determined it to be a hereditary condition in 400BC. Popular superstition at the time suggested that those suffering from epilepsy were touched by the gods. Later Christians suggested that sufferers were possessed by devils and, being unclean, might be able to pass this condition though physical contact, or with their "evil" breath. The idea that epilepsy may be infectious persisted up to the 18th century. Oh, the idea that someone having a seizure can swallow their tongue is also a myth. The ancients may have been on to something though, go search a list of famous sufferers.
Leprosy is one of those diseases that brings an immediate shudder when you imagine contracting it. The effects are disfiguring and may be debilitating. Fear of this disease was so high that lepers were forced out of communities (leper colonies were organized up to the 1940's), or forced to wear special clothing and ring bells, so that the fearful could flee their passing. Some thought that lepers had been afflicted by the gods, others thought it genetic (since family members seemed to be affected). Because those affected with leprosy take a while to develop symptoms, the mode of transmission was impossible to determine. However, since it was disfiguring, might make you lose some extremities, and had no cure, nobody thought it might be God's "good" touch.
The lack of tools with which to combat these afflictions led to drastic measures, much like those undertaken in response to THE BLACK DEATH (sorry, it's just such a dramatic name). Loads of illnesses we laugh off today were significant issues: polio, typhoid, whooping cough, measles, smallpox. Life at the time was tough enough without infectious diseases, it's no wonder people were afraid. Fossier suggests that this fear and ignorance may have led to lumping a number of maladies together. Who could tell the difference between leprosy and eczema or psoriasis? These more common maladies may even have served to stoke the hysteria and blow the reported cases well out of proportion.
Plenty of modern authors are using infectious diseases as plot points. GRRM has his version of leprosy. Plagues are a significant concern in Scott Lynch's port city. Boccaccio's The Decameron is a series of tales told by those attempting to entertain each other while hiding out from the plague in their native Florence. It would be easy to build a madman or an outcast, but I'm waiting to see some affliction used in a positive light. Would the elite ever have a "chickenpox party" because the scars were chic? Would a Tourette tic be adorable to a glitchy AI? (wow, that might be in incredibly bad taste, but it makes me think of Max Headroom) While "consuption" may have been somewhat romanticized, I don't see anyone hoping to get tuberculosis. Anyway, there is nothing that says a disease in your world has to have a real world corollary. This is Fantasy, people.
Butter and burns - http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130820-should-you-put-butter-on-a-burn
Tourette Syndrome - http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/tourette/detail_tourette.htm
History of treatment of epilepsy - http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ert/2014/582039/
Leprosy - http://www.medicinenet.com/leprosy/page2.htm
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